Chocolate Chip Scones

After my mom and I finished eating the donuts, I made us chocolate chip scones for breakfast. The recipe is in The Joy of Vegan Baking. I used a flax egg instead of the Ener-G powder in the recipe. I didn't pack my Ener-G, but had my bag of ground flax. (Yes, I pack a box of specialty food items when I travel home.) I used Ghiradelli semi-sweet chips (in the gold bag). We decided to add a simple powdered sugar glaze to the tops, even though they already had a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar. These were really good and lasted a few days in a sealed container on the counter. They were surprisingly filling too.

Vacation Recap

So the broken oven was my mom's oven. I was home last week relishing in the time to see my family and some friends. I didn't get to see all the friends that I hoped to see for a variety of reasons, but I still had a great time. I'm homesick already!
Beach trip!

My mom & our goats

My BFF

Sorbets from a local yogurt shop

Gardein burgers, fried potatoes, vegetarian baked beans (from a can), sauteed kale

Deep-Fry All The Things! Donuts!

Oven busted, so I've been deep-frying lots of things! French fries, Gardein tenders, and donuts! I made a batch of these glazed donuts the other morning and they were sooo good. That smell of fried yeasted dough is irresistible! They held up reasonably well the next day, even with glaze. I just popped them into the microwave for a few seconds. If I had to do this again, I'd fry and glaze just the right amount to be served that day and put the others in the fridge after the second rise.

Jerk Chickpeas

I had leftover arugula in the fridge. I didn't want to use it for a salad, so I started thinking outside the box. I figured it would work well in tacos, a nice change from lettuce. I made a bunch of chickpeas in the slow cooker for the meatloaf in the last post and for tacos. I came across a recipe for jerk chickpeas, which sounded way more interesting than just chickpea tacos. These were so simple to prepare. I served the jerk chickpeas with arugula, avocado, and wheat tortillas. Yum! I even got a shout-out from the recipe author for praising the recipe on Twitter. Make these!

Chickpea & Gluten Meatloaf

I had some coconut creamer lurking in the fridge from the chocolate raspberry pie. I decided it would be great to make mashed potatoes with it. However, I had no idea what to serve with the potatoes. I came across this recipe for a chickpea and gluten meatloaf. Seemed like a great way to use the onion half and celery also lurking in the fridge. I decided to bake it in a bread pan, instead of making multiple mini loaves. I think it needed slightly less liquid or a longer baking time. The edges were browning though, so I think a little less liquid would be the better choice. Overall, the taste was decent, but I would have bumped up the seasonings. Just like the tofu ricotta, the recipe was good but needs a little extra oomph.

Lasagna with Homemade Marinara

I had some leftover Daiya cheese from the chili cheese dogs, so I decided to make lasagna. The marinara and lasagna recipes are from Yellow Rose Recipes, but the book isn't in print anymore. The sauce was pretty simple and I let it simmer for a while so it would be thick. I used more spinach than the recipe called for, because I didn't know what to do with half a bag of leftover spinach. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the leftover arugula! I added a little bit of nutritional yeast to the tofu ricotta, but I think I could have seasoned it a little more. Overall, this was OK, but it does take a little time to prepare everything. I ate half the pan for dinner tonight, so it was tasty but I should have started prep earlier.

Mushroom Burgers & Root Beer Beans

I made the bun recipe from Vegan Diner again. I made hamburger buns this time, because the mushroom burgers in the same book sounded so good. The burgers are soft, but I didn't mind squishing them a little when holding the bun. I used 3 portobella mushroom caps, since my grocery store didn't have crimini mushrooms that day. I sauteed the burgers in a little coconut oil, then served them with arugula and avocado. I made these on Monday since I only worked in the morning. The recipe says it makes 6 burgers, but they were pretty big. You could easily make smaller burgers or little slider burgers. I served these with some mixed veggies and root beer beans. The root beer bean recipe is from Hearty Vegan Meals for Monster Appetites. I bought a can of natural root beer at Whole Foods and cooked my beans from scratch. I used a mix of black, pinto, and red beans, soaking 1/2 cup of each and cooking them in the little slow cooker. The beans were a little sweet on the first day, but the leftovers were great. They were a nice alternative to baked beans.